David Carrington calling for an end to racial mistrust is like Bill Cosby calling for a ban on Jello," state Rep. John Rogers.

St. Rep. John Rogers (left) and Commission President David Carrington

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- State Rep. John Rogers said today he was not impressed with Jefferson County Commission President David Carrington's speech on racial mistrust.

"David Carrington calling for an end to racial mistrust is like Bill Cosby calling for a ban on Jello," Rogers, D-Birmingham, said. "You can't spend so much time and energy trying to profit from something and then call for an end to it when it's convenient."

"He spent six pages of a speech listing all his so-called accomplishments, before spending three paragraphs lecturing folks on racial unity," Rogers said. "In his three years on the commission and his six years on the Vestavia Hills City Council, I challenge him to tell us one thing that he has done that lives up to his vision of leadership on racial issues in this county."

Rogers said Carrington had the "gall and arrogance" to quote Martin Luther King, Jr. during the Kiwanis speech.

Carrington said that only when men and women of good will in all segments of the community decide to "step out of the gray twilight" of racial mistrust and "into the bright sunshine" of racial harmony will everyone be able to join hands and honestly sing "Free at last! Free at last!"

"This is the president of a County Commission that is about to be sanctioned by a federal judge for interfering in a discrimination consent decree case," Rogers continued. "This is a man who pushed for the closing of a hospital for the poor with a plan that has been called an 'abject failure' by a group of more than 2,000 local doctors."

Carrington continued: "On the last day of the 2012 legislative session in May, State
Representative John Rogers led the efforts to block the Distressed Counties Act in the Alabama House of Representatives."

Carrington said the law would have given counties that have filed
for, and found eligible for, bankruptcy the authority to raise certain
taxes to help emerge from bankruptcy.

"As I stated in my speech, some elected officials 'are more concerned with winning re-election next year than they are in solving problems this year,'" Carrington said. "Representative Rogers is clearly in this category.

As for the consent decree, Carrington said, "The consent decree was issued 31 years ago, not in the 31 months this commission has been in office. We have taken positive steps to insure compliance."